In an interview with NBC News on Monday, President Joe Biden said it was a “mistake” to use the term “bullseye” in relation to former President Donald Trump, while insisting he has not used rhetoric inciting violence.
“It was a mistake to use the word. I didn’t mean, I didn’t say crosshair, I meant bullseye, I meant focus on him,” Biden said. “Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.”
In the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday, some Republicans have cited the language Biden has used to describe his Republican rival to blame the president. Allies of the former president have specifically pointed to the fact that Biden told donors on a campaign call last week that it’s “time to put Trump on the spot.”
Biden, who on Sunday delivered a rare speech from the Oval Office in which he called on the country to lower the temperature of our politics, went on to accuse Trump of using such rhetoric.
“I haven’t used that rhetoric, now my opponent is using it, he talks about there being a bloodbath if he loses,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s words that there would be a “bloodbath” if he loses the November election. Trump has said he was referring to the U.S. auto industry.
Biden also insisted on calling Trump a “threat to democracy,” another phrase frequently used by the president and his team and which some in the Republican Party have pointed to as inspiring violence.
“How can you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like the ones he says?” Biden asked. “You can’t say anything because it might incite someone?”
The president also appeared to draw a distinction between criticizing politics and carrying out “incendiary” actions, describing driving through “certain rural areas of the country” and seeing people standing with “F Biden” signs and children giving the middle finger.
“It’s a kind of outrageous thing and it’s a kind of cruelty,” Biden said. “It’s a very different thing to say than to say, ‘Look, I totally disagree with the way Trump is handling taxes.’”
In the less than 48 hours since the shooting, Biden has made three public speeches. He also spoke with Trump on Saturday night and described the call in Monday’s interview as “very cordial.”
“I told him how concerned I was and I wanted to make sure I knew how he was really doing,” Biden told NBC News. “He sounded fine, he said he was fine and he thanked me for calling him.”
Asked if he thought Saturday’s assassination attempt would change the trajectory of the race, Biden said, “I don’t know,” adding that his thoughts have focused on Trump’s health and the “kind of coverage” presidents, vice presidents and former presidents receive in the future.
Biden also responded to Trump on Monday, when he announced he had chosen Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, saying it’s “not unusual” for the former president to “surround himself with people who completely agree with him,” before joking that “although you go back and listen to the things J.D. Vance said about Trump” with a laugh. In 2016, Vance did not endorse Trump, whom he called “dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Monday’s interview also comes as Biden seeks to shore up support following his disappointing performance in last month’s debate against Trump in Atlanta, which sparked a wave of talk about his political future across the Democratic Party.
Although calls for Biden to drop out of the 2024 race quieted after the assassination attempt, about 20 Democrats in Congress had urged the president to abandon his candidacy before then.
Despite all this, Biden has steadfastly maintained that he is not going anywhere. Asked if he believed he was now in a position of comfort with his party, Biden reiterated that voters elected him as the Democratic nominee during the primaries and that he is “listening to them.”
He also defended his mental acuity in the interview.
“I’m old,” the president said. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, first of all, and second of all, my mental acuity has been pretty good. I’ve accomplished more than any president in a long time in three and a half years. I’m willing to be judged on that.”
“I understand why people say, ‘Gosh, he’s 81. Wow. What’s going to happen to him when he’s 83, 84?’ It’s a legitimate question.”
The president also said he hasn’t watched the entire debate between himself and Trump yet, only “snippets.” This comes after his response — in which he told ABC News during an interview about a week after the Atlanta showdown that he didn’t “think” he’d watched the debate again afterward — didn’t sit well with some Democrats.
The full interview with Biden will air at 9 p.m. It will be Biden’s second on-camera interview with a television news network since his dismal performance in Atlanta.
Republicans are gathering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for days of packed events that will culminate with Trump being officially selected as the party’s presidential nominee. Monday’s interview is also seen as a chance for Biden’s team to pit its agenda against that of the GOP. The interview was scheduled by Biden’s team as part of a series of events to counter the Republican National Convention.
Although the president’s scheduled stop in Texas on Monday, where he was to deliver a speech to mark the 60th anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act, was canceled in the wake of the assassination attempt, he is still expected to continue on the campaign trail later Monday, traveling to Las Vegas to address the NAACP and UnidosUS conventions this week.
